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When I read this this morning I drew a complete blank as to what this means or why. It doesn't make sense the way the words are arranged to imply that the bondage of creation to decay is because of God, that it is God's fault that creation is such a mess. I asked God to explain this to me and finally decided to go check out the Greek to see what I might find.
After examining the Greek words in this text carefully (as much as an untrained person can with the tools at hand) I noticed that there doesn't seem to be any original word behind the “Him” in this verse, so it must be an assumption on the part of the translators. That is not to say that it is not correct to assume a “him” in the context of the sentence, but it does mean that there may be a possibility that it does not have to be there. That would certainly create potential to change the flavor of this passage considerably.
The word for futility carries the idea of “transientness” or impermanence. I think most people who believe in Divine creation would agree that nature as we know it today is dramatically altered and different from its original design. There is a great deal of adaptation that has taken place that makes it even very difficult to imagine what the original design looked like in many ways. Even though the cycle of life makes a lot of sense to us in our context, in the original perfect world things had to have functioned much differently. If there was no death or pain then animals would not kill to eat, leaves would not die and decay etc. I am starting to see in this verse a reference to this pervasive “transientness” that we see in nature today. Paul says that it was not voluntary – nature did not choose to come under this terrible bondage to death and evil.
There is some possibility that the (missing) him mentioned in this verse might also refer to Adam, the one who's sin triggered all of creation to come under this bondage to decay and death. It was Adam's choice, not nature's choice, to indulge in sin and by which all the terrible consequences were unleashed on everything on this planet. But God was also very actively at work in this situation providing the element of hope, not only for man's salvation but for restoration of the whole planet back to its original pristine condition.
Embedded within the very modification of how creation functions after sin entered the world, God formed lessons and examples pointing us to His plan to restore us to the perfect condition from which we have fallen. The hope that can be discovered in the study of creation and nature is a reminder of the hope that we find in the true understanding of the plan of salvation.
What Paul may be emphasizing here is the fact that God does not intend to leave nature on this planet in disarray for all of eternity while only restoring humans to their original design. Nature was created as a perfect environment for humans to thrive within and to provide for all of their needs. Nature was one of the main channels through which God provided His power and life to energize and satisfy the desires and needs of His children on earth. With the choice of humans to sin, nature – the environment containing those humans – also fell into a state of being very temporary and suffering from the many effects of death, which is the result of separation from the only Source of life.
I looked through a number of other translations of this text and found one that seemed to explain it maybe a little better.
For Nature was made subject to imperfection – not by its own choice, but owing to him who made it so – yet not without the hope that some day Nature, also, will be set free from enslavement to decay, and will attain to the freedom which will mark the Glory of the Children of God. (Romans 8:20-21 TCNT)
Another thing I noticed when looking through the original Greek words behind some of these verses was something interesting in the previous verse. Verse 19 says, “For the anxious longing (intense anticipation) of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” (Romans 8:19) The words that were translated into “revealing of the sons of God” do not seem to imply a plural for the word “sons”. In fact, what it seems to be talking about is very possibly a reference to the Son of God and pointing to His return to this earth. Given the surrounding ideas of the restoration of creation to its original design, it would make much more sense to view it in this manner.
It seems to me that these verses would be talking about a time on this earth when God's redeemed children will be fully healed from all the wounds and damage of sin and will reveal the glory of their Creator. Then God will want to restore, to re-create the perfect environment of nature that He had originally designed for them to thrive in with the addition of His own presence in the form of the capital city of the universe being located here. Paul is saying that not only will the effects of sin be overcome with the glory of God revealed in the lives of the Redeemed but that God will restore nature as well so that sin and its affects will be eliminated from the universe forever.
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22-23)
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words... (Romans 8:26)
I find it very interesting that the idea contained in “groaning” is in reference to three different entities here. I have not yet unpacked it very much but thought I would mention it. If you have any thoughts on this feel free to share them with me.
